Hello, my name is Ikuko S and I'm 44 years old and currently living in Japan. I am a native Japanese speaker and teach Japanese. I have been an online English teacher with Verbalplanet.com since May 2014.
I can speak the following languages fluently: Japanese, English.

Detailed Profile in English

About me

Hello. Konnichiwa. Thank you for visiting my profile.

I am Ikuko. I'm a native Japanese speaker and a certified Japanese teacher. I speak Japanese with a standard Japanese accent.

When I was child, I lived in Thailand for 3 years. And I enjoyed home-stay in America when I was a high school student.

Thanks to these experiences,I could have many happy opportunities to meet from various countries.They provided motivation for me to be a Japanese teacher.

I have a wide range of interests including cooking(especially Japanese dishes), watching sports (especially Sumo,volleyball and football ), reading (historical novels,non-fiction novels etc.), music (oldies,film music,classical music), travel(especially hot springs) and learning every culture around the world.

I'm extremely fond of foreign travel as well as domestic travel.

I love teaching Japanese and value spending time with the people whom I was able to meet.

I am friendly, patient, encouraging and helpful.

Qualifications & Experience

Qualifications

・After graduation from university I have completed the Japanese Teacher Training course;420 hours (including a Japanese teaching course with English cross-cultural component in UK).

・Japanese Language Teaching Competency Test (passed in 2001).

Experience

I started to work as a certified Japanese language teacher in 1999.

I have taught people who want to apply for entrance to university in Japan for more than eight years.

And I have taught people of various nationalities and professions. For example businessmen, engineers, lawyers, teachers, bank clerks, students, housewives. I have taught these people on one-to-one basis and in groups and in classes for more than seven years.

I also have taught intensive Japanese language courses.

Now I work in a Japanese language school and have online lessons for people living in Japan and in various countries.

Teaching Approach

Firstly I ask your aims. For example: to pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, to enter universities, to work in Japan, to talk fluently.

For learners who want to pass JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) from level N1 to N5, I make the worksheets which are suitable for them. I am very glad to have passers every time

For learners who want to master Japanese completely, I make lesson plans in detail and create useful lessons.

For learners who want to practicing conversation, I make a plan based on your desired topic.

For learners who want to check reports in Japanese, after having lessons, I ask them to send me their reports. I check them and explain the mistakes or introduce various expressions.

Very useful and pleasant lesson this morning, with a good wrap up of the most recent grammar and an introduction to new grammar points. I always look forward to the coming lessons!

14 Jan 2019
By : FelixvH
Subject : Japanese

Ikuko is giving plenty of information and uses the chat function of skype to support her explanation. For me, this combination of speaking and seeing new grammar and phrases in written form was very helpful.
Thank you Ikuko-Sensei!

14 Jan 2019
By : Kevhas
Subject : Japanese

Ikuko san is very thorough in teaching Japanese. Also friendly and patient. I am really enjoying the lessons.